The present invention relates to systems (method and apparatus) for confocal microscopy for the examination or imaging of sections of a specimen of biological tissue, and particularly to such systems using multi-spectral illumination and processing of multi-spectral light.
Currently, the use of fast scanning confocal microscopy is limited to accessible surfaces of the skin and the eye. The reason for this is that the only reliable methods for optical scanning must be performed in free space. In addition, the size of these optical scanners prohibit their use in small probes such as endoscopes or catheters. It is a feature of the invention to miniaturize the fast scanning mechanism and increase the number of medical applications of confocal microscopy to include all surfaces of the body, gynecologic applications, probe-based applications, and internal organ systems.
Multi-spectral light was proposed for use in confocal microscopy, but only for imaging vertically-spaced regions of a body under examination. See B. Picard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,441, issued Oct. 25, 1990. An interferometer using a grating to obtain multi-spectral light which is resolved in the interferometer to obtain a spectroscopic image is disclosed in A. Knuttal, U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,986, issued Oct. 15, 1996. A lens having a color separation grating which obtains a multi-spectral light is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,486, issued Feb. 4, 1997. Such multi-spectral proposals are not effective for high resolution imaging using a compact, flexible probe. A confocal microscope system according to this invention can be miniaturized and incorporated into a compact probe. In addition, by allowing light delivery through a single optical fiber, the probe may also be easily incorporated into catheters or endoscopes. Thus, a confocal microscope in accordance with the invention allows imaging of all accessible surfaces of the body and increases the biomedical applications of confocal microscopy by an order of magnitude.
Briefly described, a confocal microscopy system embodying the invention illuminates a region of interest in a body into which said probe may be inserted with a confocal spectrum extending along one dimension. Optics in said probe or physical movement of said probe enabled by attachment thereto of a flexible light conductive member (which may be an optical fiber), enables scanning of said spectrum along one or two additional dimensions thereby providing for two or three dimensional imaging of the region. The reflected confocal spectrum may be detected or decoded spectroscopically, preferably with a heterodyne detection mechanism which may be implemented interferometrically.